OK so anyone who uses flow frames will know that after a year or so they get a bit manky. Chat forums are full of people asking how to clean them or if they should clean them at all etc. I always tried not to clean them but this year they are particularly grubby. I have stored my flow frames empty and outdoors between seasons and they are now looking a bit worse for wear. I know that the bees will clean them before filling them but really, they just looked awful. Over the years I have tried many things to renew them. A good scrub, a power jet washer. etc. the usual result is a “Unplanned Disassembly”, which is quite frankly a pain in the behind. This year I thought I would treat the worst of the frames with a steam cleaner.
This is the bad boy that I purchased. £30 from amazon.
The setup was super easy and worked straight out of the box. Pour in the water plug it in and turn it on.
My Method
With the cells in their open position, i.e use the tool to open the cells as if you were running honey, and the frames upright use the steam cleaner to deep clean the grime from within the cells. 1 full load of steam does both sides of a single frame, so it is pretty intensive to keep having to change the steam given how many frames i had. Next time i would buy a much bigger steam generator.
Once clean and sterile I used a hosepipe to spray off the frames and then dry them before putting them into the supers for use by the bees.
Make sure that you really clean the bottom vent. Easiest way to do this is to insert the hose pipe whilst running and use it as a scrubber to get all the dirt and grime out of the channel.